60 Comments

1. BigFire:

And this is a surprise?

Jul 28, 2004 - 10:47 am 2. TmjUtah:

The defense will be:

“We never said that it was REAL combat footage!”

This is pathetic.

You know what, Johnny Boy? George Bush looked like he belonged in a flight suit and at home on a flight deck. He also looks like a president. Or a cowboy. He doesn’t try to be any of those things, he just ACTS NATURALLY.

You’ll never, ever understand what that feels like. It’s written all over your face, your speech, and your pathetic attempts to hit just that right tone to hide the emptiness within.

Loser.

Jul 28, 2004 - 12:21 pm 3. scaramouoche:

Considering Kerry’s penchant for indecision, his home movie is more Hamlet than PT 109. I haven’t figured out yet if that makes Teresa Rosencranz or Guildenstern.

Jul 28, 2004 - 12:27 pm 4. DennisThePeasant:

Why would this be a surprise to anyone? We’re talking the party of Michael Moore here, folks.

I still think Kerry’s role of a lifetime was as a sperm in “Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex”, though.

Jul 28, 2004 - 12:29 pm 5. DennisThePeasant:

Teresa seems pretty Ophelia all the way around. That’s why they keep her away from water.

Jul 28, 2004 - 12:31 pm 6. Rick Z:

I knew there was a reason I saved all that Super 8 footage of me scrubbing out latrines at Lackland AFB in 1971…

Jul 28, 2004 - 12:54 pm 7. Katherine:

I am with you, DtP regarding Kerry the Sperm. Though Kerry with the Snowboard Sporting Yellow Daisy is close second in my book.

Jul 28, 2004 - 1:10 pm 8. Raging_Toroid:

As I understand this, it really isn’t news. John’s home movie has been common knowledge for some time. Apparently he used to entertain his girlfriends with it. No seriously. I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Jul 28, 2004 - 1:21 pm 9. PeterUK:

Dennis,

Cue for a song “Every Sperm is sacred….”

Some men are born grate,some achieve greatness,some have greatness thrust upon them,others just think they are great.

Sometimes history and the man come together by some cosmic synchronicity to ejaculate the laughingstock of the world.We are privileged to be alive at this moment in time.

Jul 28, 2004 - 1:28 pm 10. TmjUtah:

As far as the NASA PR shots are concerned, I posted a suggestion to Allah that he find a screen shot of an Oompah Loompah in a clean suit (from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory) and post it up alongside the Kerry pic.

The caption would be “Coincidence? I don’t THINK so!!!”

Seriously, though, it wouldn’t even be an issue (and I don’t think it’s an issue at all, to me) if the Dems hadn’t recoiled and accused NASA of a political leak. If Kerry had anything remotely resembling a sense of humor he could have dealt with it in one sentence.

The home movies are another thing entirely. I first heard them mentioned at the beginning of the primary season (seems like about 1985 looking back, doesn’t it?) but I always understood they were true home movies, i.e. candid shots.

Sure seems that the lead isn’t much of a scratch beneath the gold whenever this guy’s past comes up, is it?

Jul 28, 2004 - 1:31 pm 11. DennisThePeasant:

Good one, Peter, but to be honest with you the first song that pops into my head when I think of John Kerry is Frank Zappa’s Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?.

In any event, I’m wagering that somewhere James Carville is sitting in a hotel room in his underwear telling some Kerry operative over his Onstar telephone service that the following equation:

John Kerry = Body Fluids [of some sort]

is not really what the candidate needs to be etched in the minds of the voting public.

Jul 28, 2004 - 1:52 pm 12. DennisThePeasant:

Let’s try “have etched”.

Jul 28, 2004 - 1:53 pm 13. PeterUK:

Dennis,

Cue for “These Foolish things”

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:09 pm 14. Charlie (Colorado):

NOt to interrupt the flow of one-liners, but does this business about Kerry filming his own combat achievements freak you guys out as much as it does me?

I mean, it just strike me as really really strange.

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:28 pm 15. OldManRick:

More than strange. I’d call it neurotic narcissism.

Can anyone remember Kerry admitting a mistake? It’s always someone else’s fault.

When he bounced the first ball at Fenway, he didn’t want to embarrass the catcher.

When he fell off his snow board, he was cut off.

NASA leaked the pictures.

(If you go the NASA site they took plenty of pictures.

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=4

He had to know they were taking pictures.)

More than strange.

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:47 pm 16. Rick Ballard:

Charlie (C),

Has the man ever done anything that wasn’t scripted? I’ll admit some of his recent moves (Sherm the Sperm and the girlie toss) show a remarkable ineptitude but this guy thinks he’s thinking every pose and attitude through for maximum effect. He’s a real phonies phony. I didn’t think anyone could be a worse candidate than Dukakis but this guy is really giving him a run for his money – and spring practice is just coming to an end.

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:47 pm 17. Mike:

It’s more than ” really really strange, ” Charlie. It’s yet another example of the man’s dishonesty and hypocrisy.

I read an account of Kerry written by a reporter from some media entity, I can’t remember which, where the reporter talked of watching Kerry’s Vietnam home war movie with him. The writer found Kerry’s fascination with the footage, his endless replays of it for the writer, along with plenty of Kerry commentary, to be surreal.

Isn’t this the same Kerry who came back from Vietnam as the ” angry young anti-war warrior?” Isn’t this the same Kerry who expressed his outrage and disgust over the war in his high profile role as activist? Throwing medals (not his of course) over the White House fence to make the statement that he wanted to sever all connections to his service? Isn’t this the same Kerry who accused his fellow service members of widespread war crimes?

How do we reconcile the “outraged and disgusted ” war protester Kerry with the Kerry who eagerly made ” war movies ” dramatizing his heroics while in Vietnam? What I’m getting to is, if Kerry was so horrified by his participation in war crimes, in a horribly unjust war, and couldn’t wait to get home to help lead the protest against the war, then why was he making the Audie Murphy documentary? Why, to this day, does he still apparently revel in watching it?

If he wasn’t a phoney, if he really did hate the war with the passion he exhibited in his protests upon returning home, then there wouldn’t have been any home movies made while in country, and they wouldn’t be watched to this day. A man who actually had been disgusted and outraged by the hell and horror of war wouldn’t want any visual record of that time as a reminder.

I’m amazed any veterans have the time of day for this fraud.

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:49 pm 18. PeterUK:

Charlie it is more than strange,the man was and is antiwar.The most disturbing element is that if Kerry becomes president, every head of state,ambassador,tin pot dictator and terrorist is going to look at the pictures before having dealings with him.

Imagine,Kerry will be putting on his Ruler of the Western World act and they will be seeing “Sherm the Sperm”(courtesy Ballard Productions)How long before that one hits al Jazeera?

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:52 pm 19. Knucklehead:

Charlie,

I would have to see it to determine if it “freaked me out”. It is certainly possible. If it is actual combat footage and he was doing the filming himself when he should have been commanding his boat, I’d find that disturbing. Likewise if he was having one of his crewmen film during actual combat.

If it was “recreations” I find that strange at least in principle. I can’t imagine doing it, but I can imagine someone else doing it – GI’s are rather fond of taking pictures of one another even when it is entirely stupid to do so (see Abu Graib).

I can fathom that it may have been largely a case of “harmless fun” among some bored soldiers.

All that said it is possible it could freak me out. I look at Kerry and even through the TV I see one very strange and self-centered human being. I have a pretty good eye for that – I recognized Bill Clinton for a sleazebag the second I set eyes on him through a TV (hadn’t heard the name before) Take my word for it and don’t vote for that stretch-headed oddball, no good can come of having that man as our president.

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:54 pm 20. OldManRick:

Winston Smith call your office.

I just looked at the NASA site again. The original photo of Kerry crawling around in his space suit has been removed.

I guess NASA does want to be defuned in favor of alternate energy sources from soybeans.

Jul 28, 2004 - 2:56 pm 21. Rick Ballard:

Peter,

Wonder how many of the tin pots will notice that he’s headed in the wrong direction, too. Wrong Way Sherm, starring in another ‘Not a Clue’ production.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:16 pm 22. CeCe:

Sheesh! A self-scripted movie. Hope for his sake it comes off with more credibility than the clips from the RNC showing his evolution on Iraq.

I can’t help but wonder after looking at those news clips if Kerry wouldn’t be more comfortable in the role of a war hawk. He seems genuine and speaks with passion and conviction when he talks about believing Al Queda was a threat. He loses credibility when he has to defend his later reversal.

If tomorrow’s DNC movie comes off looking like his defense of the Iraq switcheroo, he will have more serious problems than the teletubbie look-alike photo from NASA.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:20 pm 23. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

The soon to be released book, Unfit for Command, will probably hold a few surprises.

The author, John O’Neil is the guy who took over Kerry’s swift boat. He also was chosen by Nixon to debate Kerry, and remains a determined Kerry opponent and spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He interviewed a lot of people for the book.

Of all the people who served on swift boats, Kerry is the only one known to have left before his full tour unless seriously wounded or dead.

This business with the movie is surreal. Did he put his crew at risk doing this?

There is a reason that every one of Kerry’s commanding officers, and their commanders up to CINCPAC recently proclaimed Kerry as Unfit for Command. I can’t wait to read the book. My order is already in at Amazon.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:25 pm 24. Erik:

Mike,

The article you are refering to is most likely the profile by Charles Sennott in the 10/6/96 Boston Globe.

You can still search for it in their archives, I found it by searching for the date and “John Kerry Mekong”.

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0=john%20AND%20kerry%20AND%20mekong&s_dispstring=john%20kerry%20mekong%20AND%20date(10/6/1996%20to%2010/6/1996)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=10/6/1996%20to%2010/6/1996&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

You can find more info about it by googling for it, for example with words like: John Kerry super-8 home video.

Here’s an article in National Review from February 27, referring to the original article.

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200402270811.asp

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:28 pm 25. Rick Ballard:

Knucklehead,

He was an officer charged with specific tasks. Those tasks did not involve making a home video of himself “reenacting” self-promoting scenes. He was conducting himself in a manner unfitting for an officer of the United States and his misappropriation of the time of his men and the physical assets used in making his ‘home movie’ could justifiably serve as prima facie evidence of misconduct in a court martial. Consider for a moment your feelings toward him had his ‘camera man’ stepped on a mine (or a punji stake) during the filming of this travesty.

This isn’t just ‘creepy’. This is the best evidence I’ve seen of his basic unfitness to hold any office.

Tmj, if you’re around I’d appreciate your take on what I’ve written here.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:31 pm 26. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

Knucklhead

Kerry only commanded a swift boat for slightly over a month of his 4 month tour (you don’t hear that from the press). Thus he had a lot of history to record – a month worth in which he gained two purple hearts, a silver star and a bronze star, all written up by… John Kerry… according to my sources with the swifties. Furthermore, he kept voluminous diaries. So he had movies and diaries.

As to being a phony, he returned from the war, and ran for congress. He got nowhere (friends of mine were on his campaign). Then he joined the VVAW and rode them to national fame. According to VVAW members and the FBI, he did the whole thing for political reasons – he was an opportunist. He used the VVAW and they used him. That didn’t stop him from meeting once (and we think twice) with the enemy, and then giving their propaganda (VVAW directly coordinated with NVA starting in late .72. Kerry resigned in November ‘72 but continued as a keynote speaker for them for months after that.) When his people were camping out on the Capitol Mall, Kerry was sleeping in Georgetown with friends. To this day, the Vietnamese keep a picture of Kerry in the room of their war museum honoring foreigners who helped them beat America. They also used one of his worse slanders in June 11,2004 anti-american propaganda.

“Phony” is too nice a word for this guy.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:37 pm 27. RogerA:

I can’t speak for all Viet Nam veterans but as one who did see some contact, it would be impossible for anyone except a correspondent to film the action. Getting shot at focuses one’s attention on who is shooting at you. And especially if you are a commander, you learn the meaning of multi-task: calling in artillery, airstrikes, medevacs, talking to your commander and subordinates, all the time trying to keep from getting shot.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:46 pm 28. Pat Curley:

Roger, as others have commented, this story is well-known among Kerry fanatics. Somebody said he used them to impress dates; Dana Delaney was apparently one of them.

However, what may not be known is that Kerry’s lawyers have today shut down a great anti-Kerry website, the Waffle House. We have a post up about this disturbing stifling of dissent. Our friend Chris put a lot of work into his site and he received no warning before his host pulled down the site.

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:48 pm 29. Mike:

Erik, thanks, that’s the piece I was looking for, the Sennott one. Here’s a quote from the NRO article:

“Kerry told Sennott that his decision to reenact the fight on film was no big deal ó “just something I did, no great meaning to it.” But it’s clear that the old movie is a huge deal. “Through hours of watching the films in the den of his newly renovated Beacon Hill mansion, it becomes apparent that these are memories and footage he returns to often,” Sennott wrote.”

Yeah, that sounds like Kerry, the war protester. Railing against the war, discrediting the reputations of fellow servicemen who fought there, yet he still can’t get enough of his own war movies. I think Rick Ballard summed Kerry up best when he called him ” a real phonies’ phony.”

By the way, here’s an excerpt from a highly Dem favourable AP story(are there any other kind?) by Tom Raum today, on Edwards’ speech content for tonight:

“The many injured U.S. soldiers in Iraq (news – web sites) “deserve a president who understands on the most personal level what they have gone through,” Edwards said. Kerry won three Purple Hearts in combat.”

Thought you’d like that one, John Moore. My apologies for raising your BP!!

Jul 28, 2004 - 3:50 pm 30. Charlie (Colorado):

It’s more than ” really really strange, ” Charlie. It’s yet another example of the man’s dishonesty and hypocrisy.

Charlie it is more than strange,the man was and is antiwar.

The “antiwar” thing doesn’t bother me: anyone with the sense God gave a sulfur-eating deep water tubeworm is anti-war — it’s just sometimes necessary. nor does it strike me as dishonest, really — oh, re-enacting the scenes does a little.

But this business of capturing and replaying the combat films… that’s downright weird. Creepy, as someone said. Immensely narcissicistic, pathologically so.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:02 pm 31. Erik:

Mike,

glad I found it. Thanks for the lead. Boston Globe allows free access to their archive until today, July 29, so if you want to read it in full, you better hurry. I saved a copy of it for future reference.

It’s actually an interesting read, it mentions both Vietnam and the medals, as well as his anti-war protests, including the medal-throwing.

And it seems he claims he actually filmed with the super-8 *during* combat… He even demonstrated to Sennett how he did that…

Kerry says he shot his war footage on a Super 8 camera he bought at the PX in Cam Ranh Bay. Asked how he filmed in the heat of battle, he demonstrated, gripping an imaginary ship’s helm and thrusting his camera hand out to the side. “I’d steer, or direct, or fire my gun, and hold onto it when I could,” Kerry says. “Sometimes the other guys would pick it up.”

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:05 pm 32. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

Mike

His “wounds” never put him out of action, so comparing that with the many who had horrible wounds, Vietnam or Iraq, is arrogant and insensitive.

Charlie(Co)

It wasn’t just that Kerry was anti-war – it was that he became very high profile and told many, many harmful lies about our soldiers and our country. It was that which has got Vietnam Veterans up in arms all over the country.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:11 pm 33. Mike:

John: I was taking issue with the AP story, not suggesting Kerry’s ” war wounds ” are on any scale comparable to those suffered by many servicemen in Iraq.

I’m well aware that Kerry’s 3 purple hearts equated to 2 days of missed duty, and that the first one has been the subject of ridicule from Kerry’s commander and the Army physician who treated him.

My point was to illustrate the MSM complicity in providing cover and comfort for Kerry’s campaign. If Kerry’s service had been scrutinized half as closely by the MSM as Bush’s National Guard service was, this election campaign would effectively be over right now.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:24 pm 34. PeterUK:

Charlie,

It is just that most of the genuine antiwar people I know,as in no war under any circumstances,have a deep antipathy to anything appertaining to war,one even went so far as to break the guns of her son’s toy soldiers.

None of them would have made the film and certainly wouldn’t have kept it or even watched it.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:24 pm 35. chuck:

Charlie(C)

I’m with you. It has struck me for a while that there is something wrong with Kerry’s personality, something weird and even scary. Why else would he do all the strange things we see, the mighty hunter, the warrior, the antiwar hero, the … *shiver*

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:25 pm 36. Bravo Romeo Delta:

I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that the guy enlisted in Vietnam, simply to rack up credentials.

I’m not certain as whether or not his anti-war stance upon his return was planned before he left or not.

Either way, this guy has a wrenching miasma of a man grasping for power, and has been that way his entire life.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:26 pm 37. penwil:

I think hearing this one thing about Kerry almost scares me more than his voting record and his conclusion that Islamofacism is a UN/law enforcement problem. It isn’t that big a leap to imagine him using the national crisis of a major terrorist attack as an excuse to have himself declared Supreme Ruler and then have a special uniform designed for himself with really, really big epaulettes.

And I write this only half in jest . . .

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:34 pm 38. Sandy P:

OT -

Better read LGF. Caught possible big female AQ fish.

She came across the Rio Grande.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:43 pm 39. Mike:

“I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that the guy enlisted in Vietnam, simply to rack up credentials.

I’m not certain as whether or not his anti-war stance upon his return was planned before he left or not.”

BRD: I don’t think there’s much question that was what Kerry was doing, when he enlisted. Gravitating to Swift Boats was an obvious adherence to the John F. Kennedy script he was following. Several veterans who served with Kerry have noted the obvious as well, that Kerry’s service was pure, calculated resume fleshing prior to a political run.

On the question of whether is anti-war stance was planned before he left for Vietnam or not, I’ve read that Kerry was involved in anti-war protests at Yale BEFORE enlisting. I think Roger has touched on this. So, he was anti-war, went to war anyway, came back and resumed the anti-war stance, yet thoroughly enjoys watching his war movies, and plays up his war record for political gain. I’d call that hypocrisy, to the power of 10.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:57 pm 40. Fresh Air:

Mike–

I believe you are speaking of the Boston Globe. The reporter interviewed Kerry circa 1986. She came over to the townhouse and they watched his home war movies together.

Knuckle–

My understanding is Kerry was filming during the fighting. The re-enactments Roger linked are in addition to his original footage. I will try to dig up the Boston Globe article on FirstSearch.

Everyone–

If you haven’t seen it, you really need to watch a clip of ultra-haughty JFK in his debate with John O’Neill on Dick Cavett, archived at CPSAN (where else). He even affects a Kennedy accent. Phony? Case closed.

Jul 28, 2004 - 4:59 pm 41. TmjUtah:

Rick Ballard -

I don’t even want to go there. Maybe one of our resident psssssshyche types will way in.

What I do get is that he was in country, in a dangerous place, too short a time to do more than learn how to spray and pray and cement his own preconceptions about the Apocalypse Now Vietnam Experience (yes, yes, I know the book and movie came later)and that he took time to craft a legend while he was at it.

I could understand candids of himself and his crew. I could understand “this is where Louie almost bought it – the shooter was right there, at the shot up corner of the hooch”…

…but reenactments?

This guy was an officer? Responsible for things?

Four months and out makes a HUGE amount of sense the more each day passes. George W. Bush may well have had help getting into the Air National Guard; I’ve never doubted that, and never held it against him. He served. But for Kerry to have done what he did and walk away with what he got would not have been possible without his own sweet set of Dutch uncles back home to Boston Town.

BTW, just finished my primary attempt to watch any of the convention. *click*…and the losers won, the winners lost, …ten thousand Jewish voters were cheated…a MILLION (that’s a quote)ballots of black Americans were not counted…*click*

I tried, but I can only take Jesse Jackson with a lot of preparation and surely not before dinner. I did notice he was keeping a lid on the Chatqua preacher schtick; he was mostly comprehensible. And the pan shots of the crowd showed knots of true believers lost in a sea of people with better things to do; not a lot of enthusiasm there. Good.

They intend to discredit the system they can no longer compete in. I hope they are crushed in November.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:14 pm 42. Fresh Air:

Mike–

My mistake, 1996. In scrolling through the early years, though, here is an interesting tidbit from the Boston Globe from 1984:

Copyright Boston Globe Newspaper Feb 21, 1984

In his race for the US Senate, Lt. Gov. John F. Kerry is running against four well-known Democrats, two longshots and a ghost.

The ghost is an image of Kerry himself – an image of an ambitious and self-centered politician who is not interested in the substance of government work but only in running for higher political office.

Kerry undoubtedly contributed to this image himself, notably in 1972 when he tried unsuccessfully to ride his reputation as a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War into a seat in Congress. Kerry himself concedes the ghost exists.

This pathology of his seems to have deep roots.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:23 pm 43. Rick Ballard:

Wow, Tmj, I can see on rereading that I needed to clarify. I meant to ask you (and John M. and richard m.) if based upon your experience as either non-commissioned or comissioned officers my observation that as an officer in command Not a Clue’s use of his men’s time and the USNAVY supplied assets at his disposal would not constitute at minimum conduct unbecoming. I believe that there is an MOS for combat photographer and I don’t think anyone on his boat held it. If he was taking pictures while in command and in combat he was failing his duty to his crew and to the United States.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:28 pm 44. Knucklehead:

Rick Ballard and John Moore:

Please understand that I am not defending Kerry. The stuff John has pointed to is more than enough to disqualify the guy from ever being CIC, IMO, unless he were somehow able to stand up and defend his actions and somehow convincingly tell us why he behaved the way he did and why he understands he was a complete A-hole back then. But that is impossible – there isn’t enough introspection and sincerity in his entire campaign to make that leap.

I understand that if this is actual combat footage he’s into dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.

My point, and I’ll try again to make it, is that sight unseen I can’t just toss out a condemnation of the man based on the existence of some home movies. The links others have provided strongly suggest that the man was weirder than all getout to film this stuff in the first place and viewing it repeatedly (and showing it off to anyone who would sit still to watch it) suggests some really deep issues that aren’t exactly the sorts of things that recommend a man to the presidency of the USA. All that said, service people are prone to behaving in ways that civilians would find odd (at best) and can downright wierd when severly bored and stressed (or just out of money till payday). And small Navy units are legendary for not maintaining the strict officer/enlisted decorum of the bigger fleets, so acting a little chummy with the boys during non-combat is not necessarily a wierd thing.

John Moore – if I start with the complaints against Kerry that you have so eloquently provided I don’t need to go any further. He’s disqualified from CIC in my view. If I start at the other side of the spectrum and look at his political and personal history I find him unqualified to be president.

Since he is unqualified to be president and disqualified from being CIC, and since the President of the USA is both, the man will not get my vote under any circumstances. The super-8 film is a nail in the coffin that can’t find a space to hammer down

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:31 pm 45. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

Mike

Sorry I wasn’t more clear. I wasn’t attacking you, but any idiot (MSM comes to mind) that would make that comparison.

Bravo Romeo Delta

It looks to me like Kerry joined the Navy to avoid the draft. He requested a 1 year deferrment to study in France(sound familiar?) and it was denied. He then joined the Navy, went through OCS and was assigned to the USS Gridley. That was a Vietnam area assignment (Vietnam Service Ribbon but not the green ribbon). He found out about the Swift Boats apparently while the ship was docked at Da Nang. They were a perfect deal – the only thing a lowly JG could command, in combat but relatively safe because they were operating in open water (OPERATION MARKET TIME). It would provide in-country creds and combat creds. He didn’t know the mission would change to riverine combat.

The fact that he was the only swiftie to leave before his tour was up (way before) while still in good health says a lot. Commanders don’t abandon their men. One of his commanders claimed to have forced him out of the country.

Even if this guy had a good voting record, his Vietnam and post-Vietnam record are enough for me to not want him as President. We have a guy who did a half-assed job as soldier (by bailing out early, and by shooting without positive target identification), who then became a leading anti-warrior where he spread vicious lies about everyone who fought in ‘Nam, about how the country was fought, and a number of other subject. Once he had enough publicity, he dropped out, became a lawyer, and started the public office climb.

This is the picture at a minimum of an extreme opportunist.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:39 pm 46. TmjUtah:

Rick -

I cannot conceive of ANY officer I ever served under, or myself, EVER taking time out to film a home movie in a combat environment. Especially an officer.

Snapshots in garrison? Yup. “Hey, Louie, put a long burst on that hooch again! My f-stop wasn’t right for the last reel. Oh, and see if you can hit those two guys with the machine gun in the bunker while you are at it?” No.

Lots of senseless crap happens in military operations. In peacetime the most aggravating stuff is seldom dangerous, it’s just stupid. The problem is that stupid on a battlefield can translate to deadly without any warning at all…and since you are already doing something you KNOW is stupid, your are even less ready to deal with the deadly than you should rightly have been, being in a combat zone and all.

That situation is what a good officer will always attempt to recognise and defeat. A good officer, I said.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:41 pm 47. Homer:

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this. In combat, at close range, in a small waterway, being shot and shooting back, and just trying to stay alive, he has time to film this all! You guys are all right on this. Creepy,weird, is not strong enough to describe this. Mental self-masturbation? Maybe. There is something really wrong with this guy.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:51 pm 48. Rick Ballard:

Thanks Tmj,

My point exactly. An officer not totally focused on his men and his mission while in combat is not fit to command rubber duckies in a bathtub. It took me a while to zero in (too much time playing cards with officers in a National Guard unit) but the man has absolutely no conception of responsibility. In his entire life the “little people” are there to serve and service him as he thinks lofty thoughts concerning projecting the right persona.

Odd that no one has picked up on the obvious malfeasance and dereliction to this point. Playing the absolute proof of it at the convention may draw attention to it. ‘Not a Clue’ strikes (himself) again.

Jul 28, 2004 - 5:58 pm 49. DennisThePeasant:

Humm….

Perhaps this isn’t the best time to admit that I have home movies of me re-enacting the preparation of several extremely difficult personal tax returns (oil & gas on Schedule C, tons of limited partnerships, heavy stock trading, child support, multiple residences…). Even found the original pencil and ten-key calculator I used for the remake of the riveting “correcting the error on the Schedule E” scene.

Then there are the films we made when we were out auditing in the field…

New Year’s day inventories of steel mills, testing Rule of 78s calculations at banks, observing test counts of coin in a vending machine operator’s counting room, plowing through Yellow Book checklists with client personnel…

Every now and then I pull them and show them to friends and relatives, all the while filling them with tales of the derring-do and intense personal heroism that comes with a career in Public Accountancy.

So I really don’t see what all the kabuffle is about Kerry’s movies. It isn’t like he’s a proctologist or something…

Jul 28, 2004 - 6:16 pm 50. Erik:

Well, according to the article I cited and linked to above, from Boston Globe 10/6/96, Kerry did use the camera during actual combat, and even shoved the reporter how he managed it.

” Kerry says he shot his war footage on a Super 8 camera he bought at the PX in Cam Ranh Bay. Asked how he filmed in the heat of battle, he demonstrated, gripping an imaginary ship’s helm and thrusting his camera hand out to the side. “I’d steer, or direct, or fire my gun, and hold onto it when I could,” Kerry says. “Sometimes the other guys would pick it up.” “

Apparently he’s allready used some of the movies in ads, but I’m not sure if the combat pictures are among it, since I havent seen any of it.

Jul 28, 2004 - 6:33 pm 51. Charlie (Colorado):

Dennis, don’t you think for kerry to have become a proctologist would be too self-referential?

Jul 28, 2004 - 6:56 pm 52. Rick Ballard:

Charlie (C),

Well, he does appear to be introspective in a narcissistic way. Perhaps the NASA photo was meant to convey a sense of self-supositoryism. A deep search for inner meaning.

Pretty nuanced, tho. Doubt that many would understand his intent.

Jul 28, 2004 - 7:03 pm 53. Mike:

Fresh Air: Thanks for the link.

Jul 28, 2004 - 7:14 pm 54. richard mcenroe:

tmjutah, Rick Ballard ó What I can’t imagine is any NCO or chief petty officer who wouldn’t smack him in the back of the head the minute he saw that kind of nonsense. Part of a non-com’s job is training the junior officers as well as the enlisted men.

Rick Ballard ó I ran out my reserve time in the New York and CA National Guard. I served under and alongside many, many officers, ex-regular and straight Guard, who had a better sense of mission and command obligation that John Forbes Kerry proves he has.

Jul 28, 2004 - 7:33 pm 55. richard mcenroe:

The crew complement of a Swift boat was 6 men. Who stopped doing his job under fire to take Kerry’s home movies?

Jul 28, 2004 - 7:35 pm 56. PeterUK:

Many of my correspondents complain of the incredible deceptive powers of the narcissist. They find themselves involved with narcissists (emotionally, in business, or otherwise) before they have a chance to discover their true character. Shocked by the later revelation, they mourn their inability to separate from the narcissist and their gullibility.

Narcissists are an elusive breed, hard to spot, harder to pinpoint, impossible to capture. Even an experienced mental health diagnostician with unmitigated access to the record and to the person examined would find it fiendishly difficult to determine with any degree of certainty whether someone suffers from an impairment, i.e., a mental health disorder ? or merely possesses narcissistic traits, a narcissistic personality structure (”character”), or a narcissistic “overlay” superimposed on another mental health problem.

Moreover, it is important to distinguish between the traits and behaviour patterns that are independent of the patient’s cultural-social context (i.e., which are inherent, or idiosyncratic) ? and reactive patterns, or conformity to cultural and social morals and norms. Reactions to severe life crises are often characterised by transient pathological narcissism, for instance (Ronningstam and Gunderson, 1996). But such reactions do not a narcissist make.

When a person lives in a society and culture that has often been described as narcissistic by scholars (e.g., Theodore Millon) and social thinkers (e.g., Christopher Lasch) ? how much of his behaviour can be attributed to his milieu ? and which of his traits are really his?

Additionally, there is a qualitative difference between having a narcissistic style, or a narcissistic personality ? and being diagnosed with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The latter is rigorously defined in the DSM IV-TR and adheres to strict criteria and differential diagnoses (for more, see here).

Narcissism is regarded by many scholars to be an adaptative strategy (”healthy narcissism”). It is considered pathological in the clinical sense only when it becomes a rigid personality structure replete with a series of primitive defence mechanisms (such as splitting, projection, projective identification, or intellectualization) ? and when it leads to dysfunctions in one or more areas of life.

Pathological narcissism is the art of deception. The narcissist projects a False Self and manages all his social interactions through this concocted fictional construct. People often find themselves involved with a narcissist (emotionally, in business, or otherwise) before they have a chance to discover his true nature.

When the narcissist reveals his true colours, it is usually far too late. His victims are unable to separate from him. They are frustrated by this acquired helplessness and angry that they failed to see through the narcissist earlier on.

Based on my book “Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited”

? 2003 Lidija Rangelovska Narcissus Publications

Answer by paul contributed on October 03, 2003, at 4:19pm. Last updated on October 16, 2003, at 08:44am.

As I am an N-magnet, I have one tried and true technique for unmasking. If you suspect, go in for detail.

For example in an N-counter with a new femme fatale she mentioned she was a singer tho working a bar.

Many of my correspondents complain of the incredible deceptive powers of the narcissist. They find themselves involved with narcissists (emotionally, in business, or otherwise) before they have a chance to discover their true character. Shocked by the later revelation, they mourn their inability to separate from the narcissist and their gullibility.

Narcissists are an elusive breed, hard to spot, harder to pinpoint, impossible to capture. Even an experienced mental health diagnostician with unmitigated access to the record and to the person examined would find it fiendishly difficult to determine with any degree of certainty whether someone suffers from an impairment, i.e., a mental health disorder ? or merely possesses narcissistic traits, a narcissistic personality structure (”character”), or a narcissistic “overlay” superimposed on another mental health problem.

Moreover, it is important to distinguish between the traits and behaviour patterns that are independent of the patient’s cultural-social context (i.e., which are inherent, or idiosyncratic) ? and reactive patterns, or conformity to cultural and social morals and norms. Reactions to severe life crises are often characterised by transient pathological narcissism, for instance (Ronningstam and Gunderson, 1996). But such reactions do not a narcissist make.

When a person lives in a society and culture that has often been described as narcissistic by scholars (e.g., Theodore Millon) and social thinkers (e.g., Christopher Lasch) ? how much of his behaviour can be attributed to his milieu ? and which of his traits are really his?

Additionally, there is a qualitative difference between having a narcissistic style, or a narcissistic personality ? and being diagnosed with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The latter is rigorously defined in the DSM IV-TR and adheres to strict criteria and differential diagnoses (for more, see here).

Narcissism is regarded by many scholars to be an adaptative strategy (”healthy narcissism”). It is considered pathological in the clinical sense only when it becomes a rigid personality structure replete with a series of primitive defence mechanisms (such as splitting, projection, projective identification, or intellectualization) ? and when it leads to dysfunctions in one or more areas of life.

Pathological narcissism is the art of deception. The narcissist projects a False Self and manages all his social interactions through this concocted fictional construct. People often find themselves involved with a narcissist (emotionally, in business, or otherwise) before they have a chance to discover his true nature.

When the narcissist reveals his true colours, it is usually far too late. His victims are unable to separate from him. They are frustrated by this acquired helplessness and angry that they failed to see through the narcissist earlier on.

Based on my book “Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited”

? 2003 Lidija Rangelovska Narcissus Publications

You may as well have something to chew on,how many traits can you spot?

Jul 28, 2004 - 7:59 pm 57. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

PeterUK

I leave it to my daughter to do long distance psychiatric autopsies (something she’s trained in).

I just look at Bill Clinton and my Narcissistic Personality Disorder alarm goes off. I look at his wife and the sociopath alarm goes off.

When I look at Kerry, my “traitor” alarm goes off, overwhelming any other analysis.

Jul 28, 2004 - 9:41 pm 58. TmjUtah:

Thanks, PeterUK.

Looks like we are being asked to vote for another Clinton administration, without the charisma.

Jul 29, 2004 - 12:24 am 59. PeterUK:

Trouble is to the Democrat grandees Kerry looks normal,like seeks like,as they say.

Jul 29, 2004 - 10:09 am 60. Hepzi:

I always understood he got off after 4 months due to the 3 Purple Hearts. Do you reckon he could have filmed to create evidence to support some rather dubious Purple Hearts?

If his motivation was truly laying groundwork for a future political campaign–jeez that makes the original Manchurian Candidate look tame!

Jul 29, 2004 - 2:06 pm

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